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◆ First eurozone government sells bond on distributed ledger 
◆ The rate cutting wheel turns faster

Making innovations a reality is partly about who does them, so the first eurozone sovereign issuer selling a bond on a blockchain is a milestone that takes the market up a notch in credibility.

GlobalCapital’s reporters discuss their findings after speaking to Slovenia’s treasury this week about why it wanted to take the lead among peers by trialling this new technology with a €30m four month bond. Other sovereign borrowers told us they were content ― for now ― to watch from the sidelines.

Slovenia chose the Banque de France’s solution, wanting a system in which both legs of the trade were fully tokenised.

Meanwhile, conventional bond markets have been gripped by central bank fever again, as the Bank of England joined the European Central Bank on the rate cutting path. Although the Federal Reserve held rates, it was seen as a dovish hold. That leaves the public sector bond market raring to get started on issuing ― but will it find suitable windows?